HUFFINGTON
03.10.13
KARL GEHRING/THE DENVER POST VIA GETTY IMAGES
BREAD LINE
er,” Saber told Businessweek.
But according to Dan Wood, the
baker who’s taken the lead for the
unionizing effort in Michigan, Saber’s company has imposed McDonald’s-style working standards
on its Panera cafes. The artisanalbranded bakers, Wood argued,
aren’t treated like they perform
skilled jobs.
“Most of my people have no
benefits,” said Wood, a five-year
Panera veteran and a career baker.
“They have no insurance. They’re
making anywhere from $10.25 to
$11 an hour.
“These are people who can
make pastries,” he added. (McDonald’s employees, like Panera’s
front-of-the-house workers, earn
closer to the minimum wage,
which is $7.25 at the federal level
but higher in many states.)
In his previous baking job at a
mom-and-pop cafe, Wood had a
better wage and health coverage
through BlueCross BlueShield, he
said. Back then, he had no complaints. “The union guys would
leave their cards, and I would
laugh,” Wood said.
The bakers first started whispering their grievances to one
another in 2011. At the time, the
Panera franchises they worked at
were owned by a different company from Saber’s. The bakers felt
Ken
Rosenthal
(left), the
founder of
Panera Bread
Co., with his
son-in-law
Craig Flom.